In some motor vehicles, for example, those equipped with a cab having sleeping accommodations, a gearshift lever can be actuated to a stowed position when not in use. It is desirable for a person to be able to stow the gearshift lever to facilitate movement in the motor vehicle between the driver's seat or passenger's seat and other areas of the vehicle such as a sleeping area of a cab.
It is known to provide a gearshift lever that can be pivoted along a hinge from an operating position to a non-operating position. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,803 to Sjostrom et al. discloses a gear change mechanism in which a gear lever includes first and second elements connected by a hinge, the gear lever being pivotable between a substantially vertical operating position and a folded position. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,535 to Kenny et al. discloses a gear shift lever for a truck or tractor having upper and lower lever portions that are telescopically and rotatably connected. Gearshift levers which include upper and lower portions that are hinged may suffer from various drawbacks. For example, even in a folded position, the lever still may obstruct the driver, thereby preventing free movement within the cab. As a result, it is possible for the gearshift lever to be accidentally moved and thus shifted to another gear, resulting in unwanted movement of the vehicle. Also, the hinge itself may accidentally move, thus changing the gear position, especially in mechanical gearshifters.
Other gearshift arrangements include U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,635 to Selby, in which upper and lower portions of a shift lever are connected by pins; U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2007/0204718 to Strait et al., which discloses an electrically powered drive system for moving a shifter mechanism between an inoperative location and an operative location; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,732,232 to Miyagi et al., in which a tiltable shift lever assembly includes two pivot axes, and the lever is folded in a lateral direction as compared to a longitudinal direction of the vehicle. However, the above arrangements may suffer from drawbacks such as a larger number of parts, increased manufacturing complexity, and thus higher costs. Further, in the above arrangements, it may be possible to bump or otherwise contact the lever and accidentally change the gear position, even when in the stowed position.
A published PCT application, WO 2006/096114, owned by Kongsberg Automotive AB (which owns the instant application), describes a shift-by-wire solution for a gear shifter. In particular, a first sensor or magnet is configured to move with a gear lever, and a plurality of second sensors are arranged at different positions, the second sensors being sensitive to magnetism. The second sensors are arranged at gear positions, such that the current gear position can be read off and electronically transmitted to the gearbox.
It would be desirable to provide a gearshift mechanism for an automatic, electronically controlled, shift-by-wire gearshift lever that can be moved between an unfolded operative position and a folded non-operative position, in which the mechanism includes a plurality of predefined gearshift positions. The folding gearshift lever and related methods of manufacturing and using the gearshift lever should overcome the deficiencies of the presently available methods and systems.